SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America

Latest Episodes:

How We Rebuild - Part 3 Mar 05, 2025

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Gas or electric? It’s a question more homeowners are asking as they build, rebuild or refurbish their homes. Going electric is one of the best ways for homeowners to reduce the kinds of emissions that increase global warming. But it comes with challenges. Climate reporter Laura Klivans joins SOLD OUT host Erin Baldassari in the third installment of a limited series about what it takes to recover from catastrophe and build for the future. Klivans shares details of two experiments in Santa Rosa and Oakland, where residents made the choice to ditch gas appliances.

How We Rebuild - Part 2 Feb 19, 2025

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KQED’s housing and climate reporters team up for a special series on what it takes to recover from catastrophic wildfires, as the focus in Los Angeles shifts from the immediate emergency to rebuilding. In this second episode, past fire survivors reveal how they rebuilt with resilience in mind and worked with their neighbors to make their communities safer. We also talk to KQED reporters Danielle Venton and Ezra David Romero about how the recent Los Angeles fires are impacting an already unstable insurance industry—and what to expect from future fires and floods.

How We Rebuild - Part 1 Feb 12, 2025

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KQED’s housing and climate reporters team up with a special series about what it takes to recover from catastrophe. In this first episode, we visit Los Angeles, a city in the earliest stages of recovering from devastating fires. The narrative that people quickly devolve into their worst after a disaster could not be further from the truth. What our reporters find instead is an outpouring of altruism and a community coming together.

Coming Soon: How We Rebuild Feb 08, 2025

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Join us on Wednesday, February 12 as the KQED housing and climate reporters team up for a special series exploring recovery efforts after the devastating fires in Los Angeles.

Forever Dreaming, California Oct 28, 2024

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In a rural corner of the San Francisco Bay Area, a tech investor has a vision to build a walkable city atop farmland and golden rolling hills. The proposal could help solve twin crises confronting the Bay Area: a shortage of housing and the growing threat of climate change. But the project has generated controversy from the start, and getting it off the ground has been anything but easy. KQED's housing affordability reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi follows along to see what it takes to build something of this scale in California.

'Going Bare' In The Wildlands Oct 21, 2024

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Rachel Traficante and her husband Mark have spent the last few decades perfecting their dream home in the mountain town of of Cohasset, California, and were devastated when this summer's Park Fire turned it and many of their neighbors' homes to rubble. Like many who live in the fire-prone area, they found that home insurance had become too difficult and too expensive to get, so they were "going bare". In the last season of Sold Out, climate reporter Danielle Venton explained the causes behind California's brewing home insurance crisis. Now, she shares Rachel and Mark's story of what it's like to try to recover when you can't count on an insurance payout.

After The Flood Waters Recede Oct 14, 2024

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One night in March 2023, the rain-swollen Pajaro River in Monterey County burst the seams of a levee, flooding the rural town of Pajaro and damaging hundreds of homes. In Season 3 of Sold Out, reporter Ezra David Romero followed the story of the Escutia family, as they set out to find a new place to call home. Now, a year later, he shares their next chapter. Though the family vowed never to return to the floodplain, that vow was tested as they came up against the reality of high rents on California’s Central Coast.

Facing The Fire Nov 20, 2023

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Growing up in California's Sierra Nevada foothills, wildfire has always been part of Sold Out host Erin Baldassari’s consciousness. Her earliest memory is fleeing a fire as it bore down on her childhood home. At the time, it was the state’s third largest wildfire, but now it doesn’t even rank in the top 20. As she considers moving back, she explores what it means to live in an area with known and pronounced climate risk. The question for all of us on the frontlines of climate change is: how do we adapt when our memories of a place are constantly clashing with new realities?

Sold Out Presents: Sea Change Nov 16, 2023

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Sea Change is a podcast from WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana that dives deep into the environmental issues facing coastal communities on the Gulf Coast and beyond.

When we talk about climate change, we hear one word all the time: resilient. We use it to talk about everything from our houses, to our power grid, to ourselves.

In this episode of Sea Change, we asked our listeners what they think about this word, and we got some very strong reactions. And, we ask the question: how can we address both the physical forces of climate change and the broken social systems that make it an even greater threat? We hear stories about efforts from across the Gulf Coast – from storm-proofing homes to creating neighborhood disaster response groups – to help keep people from needing to be resilient in the first place.

Surviving California's Insurance Crisis Nov 13, 2023

Show notes

When a flood or fire swallows someone’s home, insurance can provide some stability, and prevent a plunge into poverty. But as insurance companies pull out of California that promise is melting away. In this episode we discover what happens to home insurance as wildfires get worse and what we can do to improve the outlook. And we meet two families living with the consequences of this uncertain future.

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